PORTLAND:

Mt. Hood from Alaska Airlines

As the plane came down for landing at PDX, a large snow cap mountain pierced through the layer of clouds. We had arrived - June 13th 2017!

Life has been a whirlwind since my last blog post. My job officially ended on May 31st, and my butt was worked til the very end. Afterwards, there was two very fast weeks of unemployment which consisted of spending as much time as possible with our Orlando friends and packing for the big migration.

My husband and I woke up at 6:00 am (which would be 9:00 am eastern time) on our first Portland day. After a pour over coffee and avocado toast, we were ready for a day of adventure.

Angel's Rest overlooking the Columbia River gorge

We headed up to Angel's Rest for our first Oregon hike. My husband and I did surprisingly well along the 2.6 mile, moderately steep, incline to the overlook. We only stopped for rest once. Coming from at life at below-sea level in Orlando to 1584 ft elevation in Oregon, that's a success in our book.

The overlook was beautiful and the cloud cover did not hinder this. It was such a peaceful place to be. Being in nature is a faith in itself. It humbles you. It shows you world on such a large scale that the problems we face everyday shrink in size. I hope to become very familiar with this feeling going forward.

After we descended back into society, we headed over to the popular Multnomah Falls for a brief visit. It is a must see for a good reason. The waterfall is 620 ft tall with two tiers of water and a very short walk from the road. The historical lodge house in front was built out of Cascadian stone in 1925. The cost to build at the time was $40,000 which would be equivalent to $560,000 today. We plan on coming back in the future to explore the trails to the surrounding area.

Bollywood Theater - Indian Cuisine

We were starving after our day's adventures. We were lucky to be able to join our friends for their two year wedding anniversary and headed to Division street aka "D-street" in SE Portland for dinner. We hit up Bollywood Theater for some authentic Indian cuisine. All the dishes contain a variety Indian spices to taste and during dinner they project Bollywood movies on the inside wall. For our meal, we ordered Vada Pav which was a delicious chickpea fried potato dumpling with a bread roll for a hat. This was traditionally called the "Poor Man's Burger". We also had the Aloo Tiki, Goan style shrimp, and grilled corn. The dishes were fantastic and Bollywood quickly became our first favorite food location in Portland.

During dinner, my friend ordered the Pimm's Cup cocktail which I thought tasted similar to a Moscow mule with a citrus twist. After a little research, I learned that Pimm's is a gin-based liquor created originally by an oyster bar owner from London, England in 1851. To be called a Pimm's CUP requires a mixture of the gin liquor, fruits, herbs and spices. The drink remains popular in southern England and is one of the honorary cocktails at the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
 

Salt & Straw ice cream - Cheers!

After dinner, we walked along D-street taking in some of what makes Portland weird. We ended up at Salt & Straw, an amazing original ice cream shoppe with some of the strangest flavors: Pear and blue cheese, Arbequina olive oil, Strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper... just to name a few. The shoppe is currently having their June Rescued Food series. This means that they go to local food dispensaries such as bakeries, breweries, distilleries, farms and take any extra product that they would normally throw away. They use what they find to create brand new flavors such as: Breakside Brewery's spent grains and bacon s'mores, Bourbon distilled cherries ambrosia, Urban Gleaners' toasted baquette PB&J. These flavors are unique for Portland. Shoppes located in San Francisco and Los Angeles have their own unique flavors. I decided to go with a split-scoop of Lavender Honey and Arbequina Olive Oil in a waffle cone. I was surprised with how much I loved the olive oil ice cream. I will definitely be going back for more!